The Cursed Princess
by asphodel9
Summary: In a kingdom of eternal winter, a vampire princess lies in enchanted slumber. Only true love can break the spell on her and return warmth to a people who have long forgotten the scent of summer. Please R&R my first fic! xD
1. Chapter 1: Snow

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Vampire Knight or any of its characters.

**___________________________________________________**

**The Cursed Princess**

by: asphodel9

**___________________________________________________**

**CHAPTER ONE**

**Snow**

**___________________________________________________**

She screamed as she fell. Her hands grasped desperately for something — anything. _Her frantic fingers met nothing but air_ — _and__ emptiness_. She didn't want to die. Not here, not like this. _Not when she promised him._

Leafless branches tore and scraped at her face. Large, dark birds screeched agitatedly as the girl whipped past their perches. Screaming still, she fell through the barren trees and hit the snowy earth. The impact stunned her, knocking air out of her small body. At first she laid completely still. However, soon she began to breathe, slowly, _painfully_. _She was alive._

Her limbs ached all over as she tried to get up. She felt battered and bruised. _Her head pounded. _Wincing, the girl opened her eyes and glanced around. _Nothing but whiteness. _The land, the trees — everything was coated in a thick blanket of snow. Confused, she looked up at the sky, where she had fallen through the trees. Flakes of pure whiteness drifted down toward her. She captured a tiny flake in her hand.

_"_Snow...?" Yuuki murmured, eyes wide in amazement. _Surely, it couldn't be snowing. _Not when it was bright summer on the cliffs above, where she had been frolicking in the blossoming meadows before her foot slipped. _How is it even possible...? _Yuuki blinked. As if suddenly awakened from a trance, she shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"_Now_ isn't the time to think," Yuuki chided herself, pinching her cheeks with the two of her hands. "Zero must be so worried by now. I _must _find my way back up there."

The girl got up from the snow and started trudging her way through the trees. She shivered and bit her lip as a chilly gust of wind blew past her. She didn't know where she was going, but at least she could try to find someone who could help her find her way back...

Then Yuuki suddenly stopped. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. _She felt someone behind her_,_ watching her from the shadows._

"Perhaps," Yuuki thought silently to herself, "he can help me." She wasn't even sure how she knew that the person was a _he. _She didn't even know whether there really _was_ a person behind her. However, one thing she did know.

_She was afraid of him._

Without looking back, she quickened her footsteps. She heard heavy footsteps — the sound of crushing ice — following swiftly behind her. _Chasing her._ _Now she knew she wasn't just being paranoid. _Her blood froze as she heard him growl. _An inhuman, bone-chilling sound._

She broke into a run.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she fought against the snow. The harder she tried to run, the closer he seemed to get. With a scream, she tripped and fell forward onto the snow. Quickly, she flipped around, bracing herself for the worst. She blinked. _No one was there. _She surveyed the soulless landscape in front of her. The same ghastly, crooked trees. The same never-ending whiteness. Still, no one in sight.

Yuuki released a sigh of relief. "Perhaps I have lost him," she thought. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her wildly racing heart. _Now wasn't the time to rest_. She must try to get back home. She must find Zero. Climbing to her feet, Yuuki shivered against the cold air.

"Boo," hissed a rancid breath into her ear.

Screaming, Yuuki whipped her head around and came face-to-face with a monster.

**___________________________________________________**

Zero searched through the grassy fields, looking for his childhood friend. He was worried. He had nearly turned over every rock in the meadow trying to look for Yuuki. He stared down over the cliff. _There was no way any girl could be stupid enough to fall off a cliff by herself, right? _Zero contemplated for a while. Then he frowned.

With Yuuki, _anything_ was possible.

Clenching his fists, he yelled her name into the darkening sky, yearning for a response. It was almost nightfall. She had promised to celebrate his birthday with him. He had secretly been happy, even though he pretended not to care. In the depths of his mind, he was afraid of letting her find out about his feelings. She never noticed the way he looked at her. Perhaps he was afraid of her response if she did find out.

Ever since they were kids, she had treated him like a brother, telling him that she would always be beside him and protect him. They weren't even blood related, for goodness's sake. They were both orphans adopted by a kind, loving, elderly couple. _But he never did once look at Yuuki as a sister._

Her existence was the only light in his life.

Zero glanced down the cliff again, carefully this time. There were footprints in the sand. His heart lurched. It was a long way down. The valley was so deep that it was completely engulfed in darkness. No shred of light allowed him to see what lay within the darkness. His heart raced in fear.

He didn't need to _know_ what was down there._ After all, the darkness there was where he came from. _As a kid, he thought he had buried his past. He had told himself that he would never return to that dark, filthy place again.

Zero's heart pounded painfully, his mind frantic with worry.

He had to face his nightmares. _For Yuuki_.

She had vanished. She was alive. _She had to be. _And he was going to look for her.

**___________________________________________________**

_Darkness._

Yuuki tried to open her eyes. She was being carried by someone, her body hanging limply in a strong pair of arms.

"_The monster?!" Yuuki panicked and began to struggle._ She remembered a pair of crimson, blood-shot eyes. _And teeth. Sharp teeth._ Fear and revulsion stirred in her stomach. _He had wanted to eat her. _She opened her mouth to scream, but a cool, comforting hand touched her face, tracing her cheekbones.

_"Hush,"_ commanded a clear, soothing voice. _A beautiful yet sad voice _—_ vastly different from the monster's_. "Yuuki."

At the sound of her name, her eyes shot open. _How did he know her name?_ She stared at the stranger's face and her eyes widened. He was beautiful, with dark, haunting eyes. Dark hair framed his face. But his skin — that flawless, marble-white skin — was dripping in blood. His clothes, his arms, his hands were soaked in blood. _Fear rose in her heart._

_And he was holding her. _She looked down at herself and nearly fainted. Her clothes and skin were also stained with a deep red. _Her blood...?_

"Not yours," he whispered, as if reading her mind. He hugged her tightly against him when she shivered, his breath hot against her neck. She glanced over his shoulder and saw a dead, bloodied wolf. _Werewolf. _She had heard tales about creatures of the dark, but she had never believed in them. They were old wives' tales, _or so she had thought_. She shivered again.

"D-Did you... kill him...?" her voice trembled as she spoke. "He wanted to... hurt me."

"He deserved to die," he stated darkly, vehemently.

"I am so glad you are safe, Yuuki," he murmured against her skin. "I am so glad I have finally found you."

"W-Who are you?" she blushed. Yuuki tried to lean away. She had never hugged any guy other than Zero and her foster father. The stranger felt so foreign yet so familiar, as if they had had known each other forever. _Except that wasn't possible, of course..._

She looked wonderingly into his eyes, forgetting about the blood and the cold. She was mesmerized by his beauty. He was so perfect, it was almost inhuman. She wanted to touch his skin, to run her hands down the smooth texture of his muscles, but she felt embarrassed by the weird feelings she was experiencing.

"My name is Kaname," he stated slowly as he stared deeply, yearningly into her eyes. Yuuki blushed. She wasn't used to being looked at like that by members of the opposite gender. Zero was the only guy she knew, and he treated her like a friend or sister.

"H-How do you know my name...?" she stammered as she lowered her head to conceal her embarrassment. She felt confused about her reactions.

Slowly, he lifted her chin with his fingertips.

"Because I am your _brother_, Yuuki."

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 2: Coldness

Disclaimer**: **I do not own Vampire Knight or any of its characters.

**___________________________________________________**

**The Cursed Princess**

by: asphodel9

**___________________________________________________**

**CHAPTER TWO  
**

**Coldness**

**___________________________________________________**

Harsh, freezing winds howled outside the stone castle walls. Torrents of snow pounded against the stained glass windows. Yuuki shivered and rubbed her arms, even though she was covered in a long, white fur coat and sitting quite close to the blazing fireplace. Being so far from home, in this cold and desolate place, she felt weary and tired. The pure, inescapable whiteness of the land outside brought tears to her eyes.  
_  
Brother.  
_  
For some reason, she did not doubt the stranger's words. Yuuki had never known her real parents or where she had come from. The first thing she remembered from her childhood was of a cold, snowy night. Immediately, her eyes squeezed shut as her head pounded with pain from the memory. She could not remember what had happened that night... Or perhaps, _she did not wish to remember. _Disturbed, Yuuki turned her thoughts away to the handsome man who claimed to be her brother. She thought about the silky strands of his dark hair, his smooth, porcelain statue-like features, and his captivating dark eyes.

"He's too beautiful to be related to _me,"_ Yuuki thought to shyly herself and blushed. "He's tall, graceful, and handsome. I'm just... short and clumsy Yuuki."

"Princess," interrupted a voice near the doorway.

Startled, Yuuki looked up. A handsome, blond-haired man stood there. His blue eyes stared gawkingly at her, his mouth hanging slightly open from shock. It seemed as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Yuuki gazed back at him with her head tilted to one side, wondering what was wrong. Then, realizing that she had been staring at him quizzically for the past five minutes, the man straightened his posture and smiled.

"The King requests your presence," he stated politely, bowing.

"Um, I'm not a princess," Yuuki began, confused and surprised by the titles, "and who is the King?"

"Y-You don't know who he is?" sputtered Aidou incredulously. He looked at her again, as if trying to figure out what was going on. "Y-You can't be the princess! I've warned Kaname, but he refused to listen..."

Swiftly, he stalked toward her until he was only an arm's length away. "As I suspected when I heard the news, you must be an impostor, even though you _do_ look like her. The same face, the same voice..."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Yuuki protested, taking a step back.

She yelped as coldness bit into her skin. She looked down and saw ice creeping onto her feet. _What was happening? _Before she could scream, he clamped his hand down on her mouth, silencing her. She could not move. Icicles formed and rooted her legs to the wooden floorboards as he closed in on her, his eyes angry. One of his hands circled and tightened around her neck, cutting the air out of her.

"Even if you have deluded the King, the princess has been dead for the past hundred years," he spat. "Everyone knows that. What is this illusion you are wearing?! What are you plotting?!"

Yuuki struggled, trying to get away. Her mind screamed as his eyes turned into a bone-chilling, glowing red. His voice became darker.

"If you truly are the princess, you can stop me from killing you right now."

**___________________________________________________**

Zero panted heavily as he climbed down the cliff, his fingers clinging to the harsh surface of the rocks. _He needed to find her soon, before anything happened to her._ It had been hours since he started. His fingers and arms bled as jagged ends of rock dug into his skin. However, the pain was nothing compared to the fear in his heart. _The fear of losing what was important._

"Yuuki!" he screamed down into the abyss, desperately listening for a reply. _Nothing. _He swore silently. Crows circled over his head, waiting for him to lose his grip--- waiting to feast upon his flesh. They cawed hungrily at each other, but their beady yellow eyes stared greedily down at him. _Waiting._

"They're just like those monsters," he cursed. "Disgusting_, filthy creatures__."  
_  
He coughed. The air was getting colder, which meant he was getting very close.

Fixing his eyes on the rocks, he continued his descent down into darkness.

**___________________________________________________**

His fingers dug into the skin of her neck, drawing out tiny beads of blood. Slowly, instinctively, Aidou breathed in the scent and stopped short, choking. His hand loosened slightly around her neck, and the ice on her skin her receded a little. Yuuki coughed as she drew in short, rapid breaths.

"Human?" he gasped disbelievingly. He breathed again, confirming his discovery. As he inhaled again, his glowing red eyes flared. He seemed to forget what he was doing earlier, his mind focusing only on one thing. _Bloodlust._

"It's been such a long time since I've encountered such a scent," he murmured, sliding to her side. One hand trailed down the curves of her face toward her throat.

He wiped off a tinly bead of blood from her neck and licked the blood from his finger.

"Incredible," he breathed.

He closed his eyes in pleasure, relishing the taste.

**___________________________________________________**

Zero panted heavily as he clung to the rocks, his fingers trembling to maintain their grip. The light from the world above seemed so strange, so faraway already.

Looking down, he could almost see the thick, gray mist that hovered over the world below. His arm muscles ached from the strenuous climb, but he could not afford to stop. He could not afford to be tired. He knew that if he released the rocks, he would definitely fall.

If he fell, he would die.

_Then the crows would devour him._

**___________________________________________________**

She gasped as Aidou's body was flung away from her. The ice melted instantly and warmth returned to her skin. Yuuki collapsed to the floor, trembling and breathing heavily.

At the doorway stood Kaname, his expression angry and unreadable. Aidou lay unconscious, his body crumpled next to the wall. A moment of silence passed in the room. The wind screamed louder outside, rapping like a vengeful ghost against the windows. Finally, Kaname walked toward her, his graceful footsteps silent against the wooden floorboards. "I am sorry about what happened earlier."

"Are you safe, Yuuki?" he said, his voice kind, as he attempted to hide his rage. Swirls of crimson seemed to appear and vanish continuously in his eyes. _Perhaps she was just imagining things. _Without waiting for a reply, he took her hand and pulled her into his arms, hugging her. However, Yuuki continued to tremble, her mind a complete disarray. Then a thought hit her.

"H-He... summoned ice out of nowhere!" Yuuki whispered. "How is that even possible...? He isn't human, is he...?"

Kaname looked sadly at her. His dark eyes seemed to look into her soul. There seemed to be a million things he wanted to tell her --- a million words he could not tell her. He hesitated for a moment. "No."

Yuuki shivered again, thinking about the werewolf she had escaped from a few hours earlier--- the werewolf that ended up bloody and dead. She pulled away from his embrace, looking away. "You killed the werewolf...?"

He did not answer. He did not even breathe.

She continued on, without looking at him, even though she already knew the answer. _It had been so painfully obvious. _"You aren't human either, are you...?"

Yuuki lifted her head. Her eyes looked fearfully at him. Quickly, she backed away, putting distance between them.

"Yuuki," he began, his hands reaching out for her.

She recoiled. Her eyes were wide with fear.

"Just what exactly are you?"

**___________________________________________________**

Zero saw a shadow hover over him. Startled, he looked up. The large, dark birds had continued to follow him downward, their wicked yellow eyes burning with anticipation.

The crows cackled excitedly as they flew around in the air in a frenzy. Suddenly, without warning, a single crow swooped down, talons aiming for his eyes.

With a gasp of surprise, he released the rocks.

Without a sound, he fell.

**___________________________________________________**

She didn't even have time to scream. One moment, he was in front of her. The next moment she blinked, he was standing directly behind her.

"I'm sorry, Yuuki," Kaname whispered into her ear. He used one hand to hold her and placed the other hand over her eyes.

_In the darkenss, she saw a million brilliant sparks of light. _

_She saw each of the tiny stars flicker, grow dim, and vanish. She wanted to scream, to tell him to stop, but she had no voice, no material form. Her mind screamed in intense agony as it plunged into darkness. _

_Memories were being ripped, strangled, and mutilated. _

_She felt herself die in the inside. She wanted to fight, but she felt her strength drain away. She had to remember a name. She had to remember him._

_Zero.  
_  
"I'm sorry," the voice whispered again.

_Cold, harsh whiteness swept across her mind, wiping away her conscience. Then there was nothing._


End file.
